


The Incident on Isle Royale

by hollycomb



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Ghosts, Hallucinations, Haunted Houses, Honeymoon, Hotel Sex, M/M, Magical Accidents, Memories, Mind Manipulation, Misuse of the Force, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 12:28:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12581912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollycomb/pseuds/hollycomb
Summary: Ren whisks Hux away for a belated honeymoon. The abandoned resort planet was supposed to be romantic in a secluded, overgrown wilderness kind of way. After two cycles there, Hux just wants to escape with his life.





	The Incident on Isle Royale

**Author's Note:**

> General warning for some grotesque ghostly imagery, I think it's pretty tame but if you're easily grossed out you can look up the nature of Brendol's canon death and judge from there ... ! 
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> **

Keeping an open mind had never been Hux’s strong suit, but he was trying as best he could as his shuttle approached the deserted planet where Ren waited for him. Ren had promised three full cycles of relaxation and romance, a hard won and long overdue celebration of their shared ascent to power and the defeat of Snoke, not to mention their marriage. This would be good, Hux told himself, even as he noticed a doubtful grimace in his reflection on the shuttle’s front viewport. 

Even if it was only a damp exercise in tolerating Ren’s whims, at least he would be with Ren again. He hated to admit how much he missed Ren after just a few cycles apart, but there was little point in denying it now. They had been officially married for almost a year already, and had been helplessly, probably obviously in love with each other for far longer, during the toiling years when they made everything about their relationship as difficult as possible, with Snoke’s help. Now the fact that they didn’t just need each other but really _had_ each other at last felt real, unbreakable, but it still made Hux itchy to be away from Ren for more than a day at a time. Ren had promised it would be worth it.

It was hard to conceive of anything but decay awaiting below as the Isle Royale Resort came into view, sprawled across the largest island on the planet. From the shuttle Hux could already see the neglected remains of what was once a luxury resort so renowned that he’d actually heard of it as a boy in the Outer Rim, despite the fact that he’d known little else of Republic culture or luxury in general. The buildings were still intact, the battle that transformed this planet into a tropical wasteland having taken place only ten years before, but every once-grand structure was now overgrown with the local flora, and Hux could already see distressingly large birds soaring between the unkempt treetops. 

Hux did not care for nature one way or the other. It didn’t offend him per se, but it didn’t put him at ease. He wasn’t like Ren, who had insisted that they come here for what he referred to as their honeymoon. Ren loved anything wild and unlandscaped, especially if they were the only two people around for miles. They hadn’t managed the latter since Hux was a scrawny lieutenant and Ren an apprentice, and Ren hadn’t been to this place in particular since he was a child. He had come with his parents long before the war, on a holiday that he apparently remembered fondly. 

It had been news to Hux that Ren remembered anything about his family fondly. In fact it was somewhat concerning news, and Ren’s whole trip down memory lane approach to this excursion was out of character, but he’d been so enthusiastic about their return here, saying that as a young boy he’d stood on a certain balcony in the resort’s grandest hotel and imagined he would someday have his honeymoon in this place. Young Ren -- Ben, Hux supposed -- had apparently imagined he’d be able to truly enjoy the splendor of a place like the Isle Royale once he’d left his parents in the dust and found his true love. Now the place itself was crumbling, but Ren had assured Hux that if he arrived a few days ahead he could use the Force to return their honeymoon suite to its former glory and have everything in place for a proper luxurious retreat. Hux was skeptical, but too charmed by Ren’s sudden boyish excitement to refuse him, even as that same excitement also alarmed him. 

He sent Ren a comm message as the shuttle touched down, though Ren had warned him that there would be no signal here. All Hux got in reply was a MESSAGE NOT SENT error. He sighed and tucked his comm into his bag before shouldering it. The device might be useless here, but he still couldn’t abide the idea of leaving it in the shuttle, which would depart as soon as Hux disembarked, sent to orbit the planet along with the one Ren had taken here two cycles ago. It was safer that way, with both shuttles programmed to fire on any spacecraft that approached, though Ren assured Hux none would, due to a combination of his Force powers and the lack of interest in this place even as a curiosity for post-war hobbyists. It was said to be haunted. Hux didn’t believe in such things beyond Ren’s ability to commune with dead Force users, and he wasn’t afraid of them either. 

Hux braced himself for swamp-scented air as the shuttle’s door opened, but what came breezing into the shuttle was much nicer than that, if a bit rich with natural aromas for his liking. He walked down the ramp and took in his surroundings: moss-heavy trees, cloud-covered sky, the massive hotel looming ahead on the path from the landing pad. This was once a docking station for top flight transports and ships of all kinds, and his tiny shuttle looked too small and basic upon it. Needing discretion, he’d used something from the fleet, standard-issue. 

It already felt strange to be away from his armada and his growing empire, but Rae was in charge while he was away, and he trusted her completely. She’d reappeared in his life just in time to help them defeat Snoke. Hux had thought that he and Ren hated Snoke more than anyone at the galaxy at that point. He hadn’t known that Rae was still alive; once he learned that she was, he was sure that she took the title, and indeed it was her contribution to their plan that sealed Snoke’s fate. Her revenge upon him had been a long time coming: even longer than Ren’s, if somewhat less personal.

“I’m not feeling in the most romantic mood,” Hux announced to the fragrant air as his shuttle lifted off behind him, droid-piloted. Ren had told him that they wouldn’t need comms, that Ren would sense Hux’s presence upon landing and would use the Force to guide him into the suite he’d cleaned up and outfitted for their use. Hux waited, already feeling impatient. 

They had done this trick before, but only under extreme duress, and various things in Hux’s chest began to tighten with anxious anticipation as he waited to feel the warm pull in his gut, the sense of Ren being with him even while they were physically apart. Ren had surely sensed if not glimpsed his shuttle arriving, and he might have met Hux there on the mossy, weed-riddled landing pad, but that would have been less romantic, according to Ren. Better that they relive the drawing-together feeling that saved both their lives once. 

Hux had agreed to this because he had been wanting to feel it again, too. It haunted Hux in ways good and bad: it had saved them, but they had been so close to losing everything when it did. He waited, his hands twitching at his sides as he allowed himself to sink into his memories of the last time he’d felt it, when Snoke’s Star Destroyer was crumbling around them and threatening to take them both with it. _Find me_ , Ren had said, as clear as spoken words but also not like that at all, a kind of portal opening within Hux’s own mind as Ren sought him. Ren was restrained at the time, near dead. Hux had been searching for him and was running out of time. _Find me and we’ll both make it out alive_. He was reassuring Hux that it was possible after all, desperately begging for help at the same time. Ren still claims that no one but Hux could have broken the bonds Snoke put upon him with the Force, invisible chains that held him in place even after Snoke was dead. 

“Why?” Hux had asked, during the first full night they were able to spend in a bed together after that final conflict, when Ren had come out of a bacta tank and Hux had relinquished the need the be on his newly recaptured command bridge at all hours. 

“Why?” Ren had repeated, sounding like he was both offended and like he was accusing Hux of being a little slow. “Why do you think?” 

“Something-something the power of love.” 

“No. Well, yes. But it was also the power of hate. The perfect balance between the two. No one hated Snoke more than you in the moment when you saw me like that, with my bones poking out and my fucking soul fried to almost dust. And no one loved me more than you. Hence the hate for Snoke, which at that point came directly from your love for me. Balance.”

“Oh,” Hux had said, pretending that his heavy sigh was of one exasperation over the Force and its many bizarre facets and not an echo of heartache for the memory of how Ren had looked when Hux found him. He banished the scarring mental image, tightened his arms around Ren and said, “We really ought to get married, for administrative purposes,” and now here they were, honeymooning. 

Hux was still waiting to feel the warm tug of Ren’s need of him at the center of his chest. A prickle of concern moved across the back of his neck as the minutes stretched on. It was too quiet here. Too still, suddenly. The wind had died off as if snatched away by something unseen. 

Something moved in the heavy brush around the edges of the landing pad. Hux whirled on it and drew his blaster, not sure exactly where noise had come from. The gentle breeze returned and the tall weeds swayed within it. Hux felt mocked, then embarrassed by the sensation. His heart was hammering as he scanned the vegetation for any sign of a threat. Probably it was just some animal. He could smell the resort’s famous salt ponds on the air, and something about the scent felt like a truce that had been called between him and the surrounding environs, which was ridiculous. A few minutes in a disorderly environment and already he was being fanciful and paranoid. 

He put his blaster back in its holster, slowly. He was still in full uniform aside from his command cap, which he’d inadvertently left on the shuttle. Ren regularly pestered him to wear something more regal now that they were co-emperors, but Hux disliked the thought. Snoke had been fond of ostentatious clothing. Ren told him he didn’t have to take it that far, but Hux didn’t want to take it anywhere. Military dress was good enough for him. 

It was the thought of Ren’s criticism of his clothing that enabled their connection to click into place: suddenly Hux knew precisely where Ren was, though he couldn’t have described it with words. Something unspeakable in his very bones knew, and he turned back toward the hotel with a long exhalation of relief. 

_There you are_.

Hux felt Ren sending this sentiment directly into him, no real words required, and he also felt a dumb smile stretching across his face. He didn’t suppress it. Except for whatever animals might be hiding in those tall grasses and soaring among the trees, they were alone here, and he didn’t have to pretend anything, least of all that Ren didn’t make him deliriously happy. Acknowledging that truth was what this time away from their command duties was all about.

“Coming,” Hux said softly, already searching the grand stone balconies on the building ahead for any sign of Ren. He saw none, but didn’t really need to. The feeling he’d had on Snoke’s destroyer that day was filling him up to the brim with certainty: Ren was near, Ren needed him, Ren was desperate for him. This knowledge soared through him like a caress. It was mildly arousing and quite cool, unlike Ren’s actual touch. He felt his skin prickle against the stiff fabric of his uniform, as if a draft had crept under his collar. Now that this sensation was not accompanied by the threat of imminent death, he could fully enjoy it. 

He quickened his steps, trying not to be unnerved by the massive lobby doors that were mostly burned away, what remained of them reduced to rotting ash. The fire appeared to have spread to the marble floors of the lobby and stopped there, leaving a long shadow of scorch marks. 

_Judging this place harshly already. After I asked you not to_.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Hux said, and he felt himself smiling again. 

He paused before walking past the burnt-out doors, disturbed by the chill that came from the building’s interior. He supposed it had something to do with the shade inside. Even outside, the sun wasn’t harsh. In every season here it was almost always obscured by soft, pretty clouds, which was another reason this place had been a popular resort destination, also another reason Ren had wanted to bring Hux here, or so he said. Hux burned easily on most scenic planets. This one was warm and balmy but not hot, not bright. 

_Please hurry. Fuck, I’ve missed you._

“It was only two cycles,” Hux said, as if he hadn’t been counting the minutes himself. He bit his bottom lip to at least make his smile less inane, more dignified. 

Walking into the abandoned old building felt unallowed, but the tug of Ren’s want of him was stronger. Hux found the lifts to the left of what was once a registration desk. They were silent, doors bolted shut with heavy durasteel panels, except for one that still functioned due to Ren’s intervention. It arrived just as Hux did, its doors sliding apart for him with a graceful woosh. Hux wondered if Ren polished rust off of them by hand or with the Force. Could the Force really be used for something as lowly as cleaning? Ren hadn’t given him a straight answer when he’d asked. He’d only assured Hux that he would make their room spotless and cozy before he arrived.

The back wall of the lift was a floor to ceiling viewport that faced the back of the resort, and it had been polished clean either by hand or by Force. Hux walked to it as the lift ascended and looked out over the hundreds of interconnected salt ponds that still flowed into each other with natural spring water. He could see even from this distance that they were no longer fit for swimming in, pinkish algae coating the water’s surface in any areas where it wasn’t in motion. They were still lovely to look at, especially as the sun began to sink behind the thin layer of clouds, casting a sparkling pink-orange light down onto the pools as the clouds streamed past in broken intervals. The night sky was typically clear, according to Ren, and with no more light pollution from the resort, the stars would be beautiful overhead.

Hux had seen plenty of stars in his lifetime, beautiful and otherwise. The only thing he was really interested in seeing during their three cycles here was Ren in all his naked glory, in a variety of compromising positions. Their lives were peaceful now but still packed with work, and he rarely had the time or energy for half as much sex as he’d like. After two cycles without so much as a peck on the lips from Ren before bed, he was buzzing with the need of a good, long fucking that would leave his legs shaking and his arse overflowing. He turned back toward the lift doors as they opened to the thirtieth floor, home to the Royale Penthouse.  

After passing through the cold, burned-out lobby below, the polished floors and spotless walls of the penthouse were such a shock that a chill raced down the back of Hux’s neck. He felt like he’d missed a step and ended up in a different place and time entirely, transported in a single blink. He tried to suppress the sensation as he strode into the penthouse, because surely Ren didn’t intend for the cleaned-up suite to have this effect on him. He dropped his bag on the freshly cleaned carpet in the front room and scanned the rooms for Ren, realizing as he did that their homing beacon connection had dissolved. He wondered if it was the unpleasant surprise that did it, or if Ren simply wound all his seeking tendrils back up when he heard Hux’s lift arriving.

“Over here,” Ren called, from the massive balcony that lined the left wall of the penthouse. Its ornate doors were open, curtains billowing around them. Hux had to hold in laughter that might have sounded derisive when he spotted Ren, who was wearing a loosely-tied black robe and holding a flute of what appeared to be sparkling wine. 

“This is straight out of the hokiest holo drama that ever aired in Republic history,” Hux said. He couldn’t help himself: it was, down to the robe that hung ever so slightly from Ren’s massive right shoulder.

“Wait, there’s more.” Ren was grinning; surely he had anticipated this reaction from Hux. He set the drink down on the stone floor of the patio and opened the robe entirely, revealing a partial erection. Hux laughed and shifted in place. He wasn’t hard, but had experienced more than one aching pang of interest in his dick as Ren’s connective pull lead him here. “What are you waiting for?” Ren asked. He held his arms out, the robe opening more widely around him in the process. “Get over here, husband.” 

“We’ve been married for eight months.” 

Nevertheless, Hux hurried toward Ren as if they’d been apart for eight years, first in a fast clip and then nearing a sprint, chewing away what he could of his crazed smile when Ren beamed at him, looking very proud of himself. Hux leapt into Ren’s arms and let Ren lift him wholly off the ground. The warm breeze was finer up here on the thirtieth floor, coursing across the patio and making Ren’s robe flap behind him. Hux couldn’t bring himself to protest when Ren reached down to grab his thighs, hitching him up as if he was a weightless thing. Hux wrapped his legs around Ren’s back and buried his face against Ren’s throat, breathing in the scent of him like it was nourishment he’d badly needed. If they were going to imitate a holo drama, they might as well go full-on.

“We did it,” Ren said. His hands were on Hux’s arse now, squeezing fondly. “We really did it, Hux. We’re here.” 

“Yes, you got your dream.” 

“It’s your dream, too.” 

Hux unwound his legs from Ren’s waist and put his feet back on the ground. He rested his head on Ren’s shoulder and took in the view from their balcony. The whole overgrown resort was spread out before them, sparkling with wind-tousled leafy wildness as the clouds dispersed and the sun sank toward the horizon. There were salt ponds as far as the eye could see, some carefully landscaped into the grounds by the resort’s designers and others cascading naturally down the distant hills, all of them lit with a deep, glowing pink at this hour. 

“It’s really quite lovely,” Hux said. He lifted his head and looked up Ren. “As you promised.”

“So you’re saying I was right.” 

“Don’t make such a point of that, I’ve admitted you were right before.”

“When.”

Hux wrinkled his nose and pulled Ren in for a kiss. It felt silly, being this happy, and also unwise. But he had resolved not to fight it the way he did when they were besieged by the daily stresses of a newly secured regime. His overdue wedding gift to Ren would be this attempt to relax into the feeling for once, at least while they were here among these beautiful ruins. 

Ren poured him a drink and announced that he would be cooking dinner. The suite was so large that it featured an attached quarters for service droids, including a kitchen. 

“I’ve brought supplies for three cycles,” Ren said. “Probably enough for five, actually. So drink up, if you want.” 

“This is remarkable,” Hux said, strolling into the master bedroom with his drink. Ren trailed him and watched with pride as Hux took in all his hard work. Everything was clean and neat, well-made pieces of furniture restored to their former glory. Surely Ren had brought the sheets and blankets here with the rest of his supplies rather than working from the ones that had been left behind. Even the Force couldn’t turn back time, as much as it seemed that it had done so in these pristine rooms. This little pocket of of miraculous restoration seemed less eerie to Hux now that Ren was at his side. “Did you do all of it with the Force?” he asked. “Even the functioning lift?” 

“Some of the mechanics had to be repaired by hand,” Ren said.

Hux drank from his glass to hide his grin. He’d hoped so. He always loved it when Ren got his hands dirty for him, and his mechanical skills were admirable. Hux had once thought him a spoiled prince who could only do magic well, and he’d attributed even Ren’s impressive piloting skills to the birth-given gift of the Force. That was before he learned of Ren’s love for tinkering. It was one of the few things they had in common when they were younger and determined to loathe each other as much as they lusted after each other. 

“I even cleaned the bath,” Ren said, walking into the en suite master fresher. He gestured for Hux to follow, though he already was, eagerly. “And it works, too. Running water still functions, they’ve got no shortage of water here and the filter was easy to clean. No lights, though, the old system’s too huge to repair in a few cycles. But we’ll have candles.” He’d lowered his voice to say that last bit, as if the very suggestion of candles was an enticement to sex. 

“Can you really have cleaned the pipes thoroughly?” Hux asked, wincing at the tub. It was large and inviting, the marble tub spotlessly clean, fixtures polished to shining, but he withered for the thought of what might be growing deep down in the pipes, unseen.

“Hux, I can get inside people’s minds. You want to talk about an intricate system? Try untangling someone’s brain. Pipes are nothing.” 

“Mhm.” 

“More room in there for me if you don’t believe me.” Ren tucked his arm around Hux’s waist and turned him back toward the doorway. “C’mere, did you see the tent bed outside on the balcony?”

“What’s a tent bed?”

“Allow me to show you.”

Hux hadn’t noticed it, too overcome by the sweeping views of the island and by Ren’s open-robed greeting. Ren had re-tied the robe during their tour and had presumably gone soft. Hux had seen enough of the rooms and had already chugged a glass and a half of the sparkling wine. He was ready for other honeymooning activities.  

The sight of the tent bed had him hoping that was exactly where this portion of the tour was heading: it was as simple as its name suggested in function, a large canvas structure that housed a very soft-looking, cushion-strewn bed inside. It was obviously designed for indulgent sex in a semi-outdoor setting, offering privacy but open at the seams to hints of the breeze. The front flaps were open just enough to offer a sliver of the view from within. 

“Shall I bring you your robe?” Ren asked, already untying his. “I got you a matching one.” 

“I’ll require it afterward,” Hux said, unfastening his own belt. 

“I can’t believe you wore your uniform here.”

“What else would I wear? My entire wardrobe looks like this.” He wore Ren’s more casual clothes when he was lounging around their quarters: oversized tunics and undershirts that hung on him in a way he found comforting. 

“I want you in a robe all weekend,” Ren said. He shrugged his off and strode naked into the tent, kneeling on the bed. “Or in nothing.” 

“We shall see.” Hux didn’t mind the idea. He slipped behind the security of one of the tent’s canvas panels before sliding down his pants. 

Hux was not surprised to see that Ren had tucked preparations for a leisurely fuck among the many cushions on the bed: soft cloths for a wipe down that would allow them to doze directly afterward, a box of the tingling mint candies that Ren sometimes sucked on before eating Hux out, and a bottle of the designer lube they’d started using after they’d cracked the access to Snoke’s riches, the first real luxury they allowed themselves in the grinding aftermath of what was then still a fragile victory. 

“Shall I?” Ren asked, shaking the box of candies when Hux was spread out naked before him, half-hard with peaked nipples from the breeze. The sunlight was waning and the air had grown cooler. 

“Maybe for round two,” Hux said. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d declined Ren’s tongue on his arse, especially if those candies were involved, but he had more pressing needs at the moment. “I think-- Hard and fast first. Then we’ll rest and go again.” 

“Yes, General. A fine plan.” 

Hux grinned and spread his legs approvingly as Ren crawled onto him. He wasn’t a General anymore, at least not in title, but it was the only pet name he liked, and when Ren said it he felt promoted even above Emperor. 

“Tell me about your nights while I was gone,” Ren said, his hands moving from Hux’s shoulders and down to his waist, then up again, mapping him. Hux pressed greedily into Ren’s touch: he loved this part of sex with Ren, though he didn’t even know what to call it. It made him feel small and adored, two things he never thought he would want or have, respectively. 

“Do you want the romantic version,” Hux asked, holding Ren’s gaze. “About how I longed for your company in our bed and couldn’t sleep? Or the explicit details about feeble attempts at anal stimulation?”

Ren burst out laughing and stretched out over Hux, hovering just short of kissing him on the lips.

“Did you plan that?” he asked.

“Plan-- What?”

“What you just said.”

“No, of course not. I don’t have to write a script ahead of time to be funny.” 

“Hux,” Ren said, and either through the Force or because so much of Ren was pressed against so much of him, Hux felt his own name sinking into him like a ritual promise, sacred things burrowing between his ribs. They kissed, and Hux wondered if Ren felt that, too, when Hux said his name in certain moments, in certain ways. 

Hux stretched his arms wide across the bed when Ren sank into him. He felt like he was surrendering some new thing, though he’d already given Ren every worthwhile thing he had. It was this place, maybe, or the two days without even glimpsing Ren a holo call. Hux thumbed at the ring on his left hand and moaned, arching. His mind still blanked out perfectly when Ren reached his deepest seat inside him, even a thousand fucks after that spitting, growling first time in the dust on Kinetica. Hux had felt so claimed already, even then, and also like he’d won, like Ren was too arrogant to understand he was giving Hux exactly what he’d wanted. As if Ren hadn’t known. As if Hux hadn’t muttered _please_ in a barely audible huff just before Ren pushed two wet fingers into him. 

“Missed you,” Ren murmured, staying close while he thrust in slow, holding Hux against him. 

“I could have, could have been here, helping--”

“No, shh, I wanted it like this. You’d have hated the sight of this place, before.”

Hux clenched up hard around Ren at the thought of what this suite must have looked like when he arrived, animals living on the balcony and probably inside the rooms, too. He wrapped his arms around Ren’s neck and tried to banish the thought, watching the ceiling of the tent as it billowed and shook against the wind. It was wind now, not breeze, picking up audibly as darkness fell. 

“Good thing you can see in the dark,” Hux said when Ren pulled back to admire him, his cock buried inside Hux and his fingers sliding down over Hux’s exposed chest, making him shiver. 

“You like the dark,” Ren said. He licked his lips and shifted inside Hux, seeking a particular angle. He was about to start fucking Hux hard, per his request: Hux could feel it like a wave cresting, and he clenched up around Ren again. 

“Yes,” Hux said. “Show me that, your power. Pour it into me.”

He didn’t usually rise to the occasion when Ren tried to initiate this kind of dramatic mid-fuck dialogue, but this was a special circumstance and it felt good to fall fully into it. He shouted when Ren pulled back and slammed in swiftly, and bit the side of his hand to muffle his noises. 

“No, no,” Ren said, taking Hux’s wrist and pulling his hand away. “It’s okay, no one will hear.”

“But--” 

“Please, let me hear you, I love it when you’re loud.” 

Hux knew this. At home, their rooms were soundproofed. But there was a particular thrill in trying to keep quiet when they might be heard, and maybe brazenly unleashing all his sex noises into the wilderness would prove good, too. 

“Fuck me, then,” Hux said. “So hard, so I can’t hold it in.” 

Ren did. Hux clawed at Ren’s back, shouted Ren’s name and then some less-word like things, and came as soon as Ren reached between them to fist his cock. The reverberations of his climax set Ren off as usual. Hux held him through it and murmured praise in his ear: _so good, yes, oh, needed that, missed you_. Even babbling like this was another kind of pleasure, he’d found. He loved the way Ren shivered in his arms when he heard things like this, absorbing it as if Hux was restoring his power after he’d been weakened by pumping so much of it into Hux. 

They were half-dozing even before Ren pulled out, and by the time they’d separated Hux wasn’t capable of much beyond grunting with approval when Ren mopped at his arse. It was true that he hadn’t slept much while Ren was away. He’d awakened gasping from nightmares more than once, and was bothered when he couldn’t recall them. With Ren there he always could, and he’d never considered this a perk of Ren’s company before, but he’d become accustomed to analyzing his subconscious fears and mining that information for solutions to quell his anxiety. Without Ren, there was just a lot indistinct danger and failure in his bad dreams, and nothing left but a sense of foreboding dread when he woke. And without the heat of Ren’s chest against his cheek in the aftermath, he’d not been able to get back to sleep. 

Now he slept soundly, despite the chill in the air. Ren had draped a heavy fur blanket over him before sliding out of bed to make their dinner. Hux woke to a fully dark sky and several very old-fashioned lanterns that were glowing on the balcony railing, candles flickering inside. 

He sat up, still groggy with pleasure, and tugged the blanket up around his shoulders. When his eyes adjusted he left the tent bed, shivering as his bare feet touched the cold stone floor of the balcony. There was no moon visible, and beyond the reach of the lantern light there was complete blackness, the pools and trees and anything else that might be out there concealed within it. Hux picked up one of the lanterns and hurried into the suite, his hazy restful feeling departing quickly. He was hardly afraid of the dark, and not even all that uncomfortable with the unknown, but there was something menacing about even the interior rooms of the suite as he moved through them, looking for Ren. He felt watched by the walls and the furniture, and the lantern threw strange shadows when he swung it around. 

“Where are you?” he called. 

No answer came, through the Force or otherwise. The whole suite was quiet. The wind had died down and there was almost no sound at all, save for a distant rustling of leaves far below in the jungle. Dread crept up from the base of Hux’s spine, making the hair at the back of his neck stand up. He shouldn’t have left his blaster on his belt, which was resting on top of the pile of clothing he’d folded at the end of the tent bed. 

“Ren?” he called, and a slow, creaking sound from behind him seemed to answer. 

It was not Ren: Hux knew that much before he turned, holding the lantern out and bracing himself for what its light would reveal. The chilly sense of being watched had spread over his entire body, and he knew from combat training to trust the sensation even if he couldn’t explain it. Something had moved in the dark, but now everything was too still again. 

He debated going for his blaster and decided to investigate without it first, though he was nude, weaponless and disoriented. It was illogical, but something called him toward the sound he’d heard, almost like a taunt, a dare. He held the lantern out, resolving to smash it across the face of an advancing animal if he needed to.

There was no animal, but something had opened the big wooden door that lead from the suite’s main room and out into the foyer where the lift had deposited him. There was an old-fashioned lock on the door, which had been open when Hux arrived. He thought he remembered Ren closing it. Perhaps it had only been the wind that moved it. Stupid, he thought, glowering at the door while his heart hammered. Wooden doors were a romantic folly. A standard wall slider would have made more sense even here, for security purposes. Surely the long-ago guests who stayed here had brought valuables that needed proper guarding.

The clattering bang that came from behind him felt like something he’d conjured up by thinking of people who’d stayed here before: a warning to get out, that bad things had happened here and would again. 

Hux stood staring in the direction of this new and more alarming noise had come from, wide-eyed and holding up the lantern, his voice stuck in his throat. Another door opened in the dark, and light came from behind it. As did the sound of Ren cursing. 

“I’m in here!” Ren called, poking his head out. “Sorry, didn’t realize you were awake. The sauce was boiling over.”  

Hux groaned at the mention of sauce, annoyed at himself for getting worked up over nothing and at Ren for going overboard as usual. They were essentially camping; there was no need for elaborate hot meals. Hux would have been happy eating beans out of a can along with their fine wine. Though he enjoyed good food, he’d never shared Ren’s need to make an occasion of every meal. It was a wasteful, Republic-bred philosophy. 

“How are you cooking with no power?” Hux asked, walking closer. He already knew: he could smell a wood fire.

“I have all kinds of skills.” Ren was grinning in the doorway, looking a bit eerie with his lantern lighting his face from below. 

“That seems ill-advised,” Hux said, knowing this objection would go nowhere in terms of dampening Ren’s determination. 

“It’s not, I promise. There’s a vent in here for the smoke. Come on in, it’s almost ready. You okay?”

“Of course I’m okay.” Hux wasn’t sure if he wanted to confess how on edge he felt in this place. It would hurt Ren’s feelings and would make Hux sound like a coward. Ren had seen him in every possible state of vulnerability over the years, but he still had pride. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You look--” Ren set the lantern down and reached for Hux, drawing him close. “I mean, you seem-- Never mind. Sorry I left you out there, you were so tired.” 

“It’s fine, I did need to sleep.” He was a little miffed that Ren hadn’t lingered for a second, more leisurely fuck, but he supposed they had plenty of time for that. “Did you open that front door?” he asked. “The one that leads out to the lift?”

“No, did it come open? I tried to fix the lock, but the tech is so old, it’s a lost cause. I could only do a sorry patch job.” 

“I suppose there’s no danger in leaving it ajar,” Hux muttered, turning back. All he could see was darkness. “Where are these candles you’re supposedly going to light?” 

“All in here, for now. Can’t leave candles burning unattended in every room.” 

“Yes, yes. What are you cooking?”

Hux followed Ren into the candlelit kitchen and observed the in-progress meal as Ren narrated, explaining this and that as if he’d never cooked noodles with white sauce and fish for Hux before. Something about this place had brought out a boyish side of Ren that Hux had only seen brief glimpses of in the past, and even the cadence of his voice was cheerier than Hux could ever remember hearing it. Hux liked it but also found it suspicious. He disliked this suspicion but couldn’t seem to get rid of it. It had been there since Ren first mentioned he’d once come here with his parents. 

Hux accepted a snack of nice cheese and another glass of the wine while Ren put the finishing touches on their meal. Though the kitchen was bare-bones durasteel designed for droid use, the candles gave it a cozy feel, and Hux had to admit that a hot meal seemed ideal now that he’d smelled it cooking. His stomach made gurgling sounds of impatient anticipation while he sat at the little wooden table that Ren must have dragged in here, still wrapped up in his fur blanket while he popped pieces of cheese in his mouth and watched Ren cook. 

“Tomorrow we can explore the grounds,” Ren said when they were seated on a wooden bench at the table, their shoulders bumping together as they ate. “The pools are just as awesome as I remembered, and there’s all kinds of aquatic life in them.” 

“What was the occasion when you came here as a boy?” Hux asked. He was always cautious with any questions about Ren’s past, but suddenly Ren seemed so intent on revisiting it. Perhaps he wanted to be asked.

“Just a holiday,” Ren said. “Or, wait.” He looked up from his plate at nothing in particular. “I think it might have been their anniversary. Leia and Han’s.” 

“Of their wedding?”

“No, they were never married.” 

“Really?” Hux could have sworn that some long-ago dossier on Organa had described Solo as her husband, but maybe that was only an Imperial assumption. 

“It was-- I don’t know. The anniversary of when they met, or when they first, uh. Got together.” 

Ren seemed gloomy after saying this, and Hux internally berated himself for bringing it up. He squeezed Ren’s thigh under the table. Ren was in his black robe again, and Hux was still wearing the fur blanket like a cloak. 

“This is very good,” Hux said. “You take such good care of me,” he added, so that Ren would look at him. 

Ren did, eyes shining in the candlelight. Hux gave him a sauce-flavored kiss on the lips. Ren smiled a little, sheepish. 

“Thanks for putting up with this,” he said. “I know it’s not really your thing.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, spending uninterrupted time with you is my thing. One of my things, anyway. Is there dessert?”

After eating a full three courses, a simple dessert of lemon cream pudding included, they retrieved the other lantern from the patio and closed up the balcony doors. Hux double checked that they were locked properly. They were were more modern than the decorative foyer door, paned with transperisteel and fitted with sturdy slide locks. It still made him anxious that Ren had to activate these locks with the Force rather than the power that the suite lacked, but there was nothing to be done about it. In the master bedroom he put his blaster on a chair near the bed with the rest of his clothes. He climbed beneath the blankets while Ren lit a wood fire in the massive fireplace on the other side of the room. 

“These sheets are high quality,” Hux said, squirming within them as Ren approached. Hux was already hard, but he was covered up with so many layers that his tent wasn’t obvious. “I so love the mental image of you personally making a bed up for me,” he said when Ren crawled over to him, still above the blankets. Hux was teasing, but also serious. “Unless you had droids helping?”

“No droids,” Ren said. “I wanted to make our honeymoon bed myself. By hand.” 

“Are you going to have me in it?” Hux asked, affecting a bashful look. “Shall I make-believe it’s our first time? My first time?”

“You are hiding under the blankets like a nervous virgin.” 

“Only because I’m cold. Unless you’d like to pretend otherwise.” 

“Mhm.” Ren ducked down to mouth at Hux’s neck. The wet heat of his tongue made Hux gasp and then moan. He was a little drunk from all the wine, unguarded. He tried to imagine what it would be like to have Ren for the first time like this: with ceremony, amid luxury, without having just told each other off and threatened to kill each other directly beforehand. “I loved our first time,” Ren said, muttering this against Hux’s skin hotly, as if he knew Hux was thinking of it. “You were so, mpfh. Such a desperate little slut for my cock, right away.” 

Hux snorted. So they weren’t going to play at virgin newlyweds. Fine by him; he was leaking against the sheets for what Ren had said already.

“As if you weren’t desperate, too,” Hux said, lifting his hips to grind his blanket-covered erection against Ren’s. “Desperate to put that in me. Drooling on my neck like an animal while you fucked me.”

“Lieutenant Hux,” Ren said, reaching under the blankets to find Hux’s hands. When he had, he pinned them against the pillows, over Hux’s head. “You were so tight. Scared.”

“I was not!” 

Actually he’d been terrified, not of Ren but of what he was allowing himself to do and how much he already knew he would want it again. For years he’d tried to convince himself that Ren had bewitched him with the Force every time they’d fucked, though he’d never come close to believing it. He never felt more at home within his own desires than he did when Ren rose to meet every one of them. 

“Mhmm, maybe scared is the wrong word.” Ren was grinding down onto Hux too gently, holding back the pressure that Hux wanted when he lifted his hips, chasing the feeling. “You were trying to keep yourself in check. Afraid of how much you liked it.” 

“What about you? You licked my cheek.”

“Not that first time.”

“Yes, that first time!” Hux would never forget it. 

“Oh. Well, I already loved you.”

“Please, you’d told me you’d cut me in half with your lightsaber a few minutes before I spread my legs for you.” 

“That doesn’t mean I wasn’t in love with you. I was-- You know how I was. Young. And you’d just said you’d laugh while you watched me liquefy in a bacta tank. I was only taking your cues.” 

Hux grinned against Ren’s lips, amused by the idea that Ren had been taking his cues the whole time, while Hux hollowed himself out with longing and ground his teeth together in rage when Ren didn’t fall at his feet. It would be horribly tragic if they hadn’t ended up here, in a honeymoon suite, humping against each other while a roaring fire warmed the room. 

They had the kind of languid sex Hux had been dreaming of, first under the blankets and then on top of them, when they were both sweat-soaked and red-cheeked. Ren came when Hux was bouncing in his lap, riding his cock wildly at last, and Hux finished with Ren’s fingers inside him, squelching within the mess Ren had made of him while Ren whispered utter filth in his ear: _fucked you open so good, feel that, you’re all loose and wet, sloppy for how hard you took that cock_. Just the way Ren pronounced the word _wet_ reliably set Hux off. Hux held Ren against him while he emptied himself, thrumming all over like an instrument that had been played brilliantly by the sound of Ren’s voice as much as anything else. Hux loved Ren’s voice. He dragged Ren down by the ears and kissed him as if he could swallow it up. 

The fire was still blazing when they fell asleep in each other’s arms. Hux was comfortable, buzzing with satiation, and feeling a bit foolish for stationing his blaster within arms’ reach of the bed. It was never a bad idea to prepare for the worst, but he couldn’t imagine needing to use it now, with Ren’s arms around him, not to mention Ren’s lightsaber resting at the ready on the other side of the bed. 

When Hux woke it was completely dark, not even a lingering ember glowing in the fireplace. This seemed wrong to him as he sat up, wincing with discomfort for how badly he needed to piss. By instinct alone he had the feeling he’d only been asleep for an hour or so, and that the fire should still be burning low behind the grate. Perhaps a draft had come down the chimney and put it out. He reached for the black robe that Ren had hung on the headboard for him and slipped it on. Ren was asleep, breathing evenly. Hux padded away from the bed, moving awkwardly with his over-full bladder and hoping that Ren had got the toilet functioning in the fresher. 

He was happy to find that Ren had: of course he’d thought of everything. Once he’d thought of almost nothing, or at least nothing practical. Hux had trained him well. 

There was enough starlight through the windows in the fresher and the master bedroom to show him the way back to bed without need of a lantern. Hux ran his hand along the wall even so, feeling unsteady on his feet. Even being in the next room, just a few feet away from Ren, made this place seem sinister again. He hurried toward the bed, and froze in place when he heard a high, whining sound from out in the suite. It was a slow, steady creaking: that foyer door opening again, or opening more widely. 

Hux thought of waking Ren. He eyed Ren’s lightsaber and told himself that if there was real danger here, Ren would have leapt from bed and ignited it already. Ren could sense such things even through sleep. Hux had seen him do it in the past. He told himself to stop being ridiculous and walked around the bed to fetch a lantern and his blaster. He didn’t need to bother Ren with every sound that startled him in the night. He wasn’t a child, and didn’t require Ren’s protection from his own wild imagination. He would make sure there was no animal intruding, shut the door and return to bed. 

Though the fire seemed as if it had gone out hours ago, the rooms outside the master bedroom were markedly colder. The lantern only gave off enough light to show Hux what was a few feet in front of him, everything beyond that still cloaked in thick darkness. There was no sound, but Hux felt as if he wasn’t alone out here. He felt called toward something that had been waiting for him since he arrived. Something that wasn’t Ren. 

He moved past familiar landmarks: a chair, an end table, other things he had noticed in the daylight. There wasn’t much furniture in the suite. Ren must have thrown away whatever he couldn’t polish to a respectable state. He’d probably stashed it someplace in a pile. Hux felt a deep, pulsating chill move through him at the thought of a pile of furniture that had long resided here, pitched out by Ren and trashed in a pile, seething. 

So he was allowing himself thoughts that were beyond ridiculous now, probably not even fully awake. He told himself this even as his pulse skyrocketed and the wooden door came into view. It was fully open now, thick darkness from the foyer seeming to pour in past it like smoke. 

Hux was awake. He felt every part of himself on guard, icy stiff and braced for impact. Something watched him from the dark. He felt it smile cruelly. 

“Hello?” he called. Even the sound of his own voice in the quiet startled him. Never had he been this jumpy. At least not for a long time. He hadn’t shivered helplessly like this since childhood. Since--

Brendol. At first it just seemed like a memory of the purest terror Hux had known, but as his father stepped closer, smiling, the light from the lantern illuminated more of him. He was there, solid. He’d aged, but otherwise he looked as big and strong as he always had. He was alive, and he was angry. Rage came off of him in waves, biting at Hux like a thousand sharp teeth borne on the frigid air.

Hux was shattered to nothing by the sight of him. He couldn’t move or speak but he heard himself breathing harder, as if underwater and gasping for air through a narrow tube that broke the surface. 

“Thought you’d outsmarted me, didn’t you, boy?”

“No,” Hux tried to say. His voice didn’t work. He was a husk, instantly. 

Brendol laughed. It seemed to echo off the walls in the mostly empty front room, as if he was multiplying himself into an army. Hux had long feared that he’d only managed to kill a clone. Brendol was the type who would have made decoys, and he’d have hidden it from Hux if so. Brendol had been naive in some ways, but he’d never fooled himself that Hux didn’t want him dead. 

“Soon,” Brendol said. “We’ll settle our score, you and I.” 

He stepped back into the darkness of the foyer. The lift arrived, and Hux watched his father’s silhouette board it and disappear behind its door. 

Only then did Hux remember the blaster in his hand. He looked down at it dumbly and dropped to his knees. 

He was cold all over, coated in Brendol’s poison. His mind was sluggish and he felt smaller than he had been just a few minutes ago, as if he’d been physically cut off at the knees. 

_Ren_ , he managed to think. He set the blaster and lantern down and put both hands over his face, ashamed even now of how afraid he was. _Ren, find me. Help, please_.

There was a sticky film around him like something Brendol had spat out, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to break through it and get to Ren. At least not without moving. He backed away from the door, scooting on his ass and then crawling backward, his eyes still wide with horror. He felt as if he would never allow himself to blink again, let alone sleep.  

When he stumbled into the bedroom Ren was just waking. Hux tripped his way toward the bed in the dark, the sheen of starlight across Ren’s skin drawing him a beacon. 

“What’s wrong?” Ren asked. He threw the blankets off his legs and moved toward Hux, catching him as he reached the bed. “Hey, what-- Hux? What happened?”

“Bren-- Brendol.” Just saying it was like a knife down Hux’s throat. He winced and clung to Ren, burying his face against the side of Ren’s throat. Ren’s pulse pounded against his cheek. It was a cold comfort because that meant this was real: the heat of Ren’s skin, Hux’s complete consciousness, the sight of his father in the foyer. 

“Brendol?” Ren put one hand over the back of Hux’s neck, his other arm snug around Hux’s waist. “You dreamed about him? Were you sleepwalking?”

“No. No, I-- Woke up, the fire was out. He’s there, he’s here, we have to leave. Ren, he’s alive, he’ll kill me, he’s here to see me dead--” 

“Okay.” Ren hoisted Hux fully into his arms and pulled him into bed. “Hey, it’s all right. Hux, you were just dreaming.” 

“No. _No_. Go out there and look, I took my blaster, he was there!” 

“You’ve grabbed your blaster in your sleep before. Hux, it’s okay, shhh. I’ve got you, you’re all right.”

“I’m not-- Nothing is all right!” Hux pulled back to glare at Ren. “He’s alive, my father is alive and he’s stalked us here!” 

Ren shook his head. His eyes were full of pity. “There’s no one here but us,” he said, both hands on Hux’s waist now. “I swear. I promise. I’d feel it, through the Force. And I’d have felt it if your father was still alive, too. He’s dead, Hux. He can’t hurt you, he’s gone. It was only a dream.” 

Hux shook his head, though he was beginning to believe Ren was right. He had to be. If he wasn’t, then he was lying, and Hux couldn’t believe that and go on living. He wouldn’t. He threw his arms around Ren’s neck and tried to stop shivering. It was warmer in this room, at least, and Ren felt real in a way that the vision of Brendol in the doorway hadn’t. Because it couldn’t be real, unless Hux had really been living in a nightmare all along. 

“Sorry, it’s this place.” Ren took a deep breath and let it out. He squeezed Hux closer and kissed his ear. “Isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s-- He was there, Ren, somehow. I felt him. You don’t know what it’s like to grow up terrified of your father. Nothing else that’s scared me has ever felt like that. Nothing else can freeze my blood that way. It was _him_.”

“But haven’t you felt that before, in your bad dreams?”

Ren posed this question gently, because he knew the answer. Hux didn’t often wake up screaming, but it happened occasionally. Shortly before they’d enacted their plan to kill Snoke he’d had a bad run of dreams like that. Brendol appeared in them regularly. Ren had been there, more than once, to talk Hux down like this in the aftermath. 

“Nothing can hurt you here,” Ren said when he’d tucked Hux back under the blankets with him. Hux curled up against Ren’s side and stared at the doorway that lead out to the rest of the suite. He believed Ren, he had to, but he couldn’t shake the ice off his bones. 

“I don’t feel like I’ve woken up,” Hux said. “From the dream, or whatever it was. I feel like I’m still in it.” 

“You’re awake.” Ren gave him a little pinch on the arse to demonstrate. He smiled when Hux tore his gaze from the empty doorway to look up at him. “See?”

“I’m sorry,” Hux said, feeling childlike again, small. 

“For what? I have nightmares, too.” Ren kissed Hux’s forehead, held him close. “You know that.”

“Yours don’t involve carrying a fully charged weapon around in the dark.” 

“Sure they do. I’ve grabbed for the lightsaber in my sleep. But the Force keeps me alert to reality. Even if you fired at me, I’d wake up with the blaster bolt frozen in mid-air.”

“I’m not going to shoot at you!” Hux clung tighter, thinking that he might have. He’d been so deep in whatever that dream vision was. It had felt more real than the promise of Ren waiting for him and protecting him from whatever might really come. 

Ren’s fingers soothed through Hux’s hair. “Just try to sleep,” he said. The sound of his voice was like a balm, easing Hux back into the belief that he could sleep, maybe. “In the morning it won’t feel real anymore.” 

Hux wanted to believe this. He slept fitfully, never letting go of Ren. Ren didn’t let go of him either, and every time Hux snapped awake to check that the master bedroom doorway was still empty of ghosts, Ren was already awake, ready to whisper to him that everything was okay. 

The light of dawn brought a certain amount of comfort. Hux felt as if he’d survived some ordeal, and he rolled over in Ren’s arms, finally able to sleep for a few consecutive hours. Ren stayed with him, his chest snug against Hux’s back. Hux dreamed that they were on a ship together, rocked by lazy waves as they drifted further and further from shore. In the dream, he wasn’t alarmed by the sense that they were leaving civilization together for good. Ren was with him, so what did it matter?

He woke up still jittery but also hungry and mildly aroused. Ren looked concerned when Hux rolled over in his arms, and Hux didn’t want that to be the mood of their first full day here. He kissed Ren and moved lazily against him until they were both hard. 

“Want to fuck me?” Ren asked. 

Hux laughed against Ren’s mouth and thought of the first time he’d asked that, how earnest and hopeful he’d sounded. It was the first time Hux had seriously considered that Ren was younger than him.

“Later,” Hux said. He was always postponing it. That first time he’d been eager, thinking it would make him feel powerful. It was nice in that sense, hearing Ren moan for him, but he’d mostly envied Ren for being the one who got to thrust his arse back and take it. 

After they’d sucked each other off and dozed a bit longer, Hux dragged himself into the fresher. He used the sonic feature in the stall shower, not trusting the deepest reaches of the water pipes and also because he was in a hurry to return to Ren’s side. The residue left behind by his vivid dream about Brendol, which still felt like more of an encounter than a dream, was heavy upon him even after he’d scrubbed himself pink. He dressed by the fireplace, which Ren had relit before heading to the kitchen to make some kind of needlessly elaborate breakfast, no doubt. Hux was in a good mood after he’d put on the long-sleeved tunic and arse-hugging trousers that Ren had presented to him when they left the bed. He was beginning to wish he’d gotten Ren some kind of token as a present, since his original plan to make a present of his laid back attitude here was already in tatters. 

Still, he was determined to act as if last night wasn’t continuing to haunt him. The sight of his blaster and the blown-out lantern sitting on the floor near the wooden foyer door brought a chill back into his bones as he passed them on the way to the kitchen. Ren had shut the door, at least. Hux retrieved the blaster and returned it to his pile of uniform clothes. He had no belt to wear it on with this new attire. 

After breakfast they took the lift down to the ground floor and hiked among the salt ponds as planned. The clear air took more of Hux’s lingering anxiety away with it on the breeze, and by the time they spread out their picnic lunch in a meadow at the edge of the main grounds Hux felt as relaxed as he’d hoped to. He leaned back against Ren’s chest while he snacked on dried fruit and more good cheese, now spread over hunks of chewy bread. 

“Sorry I made a scene last night,” he said, wanting to banish it. “There was a scene, wasn’t there? Or did I dream that part, too?”

“It wasn’t a scene.” Ren kissed Hux’s cheek after saying so, a kind of concession. “You just woke up confused after a bad dream. Nothing to apologize for.”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever had one that bad before. It was like being told that nothing I had was real. That the only thing that would ever be real was his ability to smash anything I managed to make of myself to bits.”

Hux hadn’t meant to get into it so deeply. He felt himself flushing while Ren sighed ponderously near his ear, holding him. 

“I almost wish he was alive,” Ren said. “I’d like to kill him myself. Painfully.” 

Hux shook his head. He wouldn’t be able to say why without revealing the lump that had just formed in his throat, but the idea of Ren killing Brendol was horrible. It would tarnish Ren to even be in the same room with Brendol. Hux needed the two of them to exist in completely different galaxies, always. 

They spent the rest of the day exploring lazily, spying on birds and marine life. Ren concealed their presence with the Force, so the wildlife wasn’t startled away. Hux lamented not having brought his comm for picture-taking, and Ren insisted it was better this way. 

“Memories captured in holos aren’t as good,” Ren said. “You have to let them be fleeting. Accept that you can’t keep them as they are. They’ll shift and change and grow with the rest of you. In that sense they remain truly alive.” 

“You sound a little drunk,” Hux said. “What’s in your canteen?”

“Water. You’re so threatened by any suggestion of philosophy.”

“Threatened!” Hux was close to actually being offended by that. “Hardly. I just find it-- Maybe it’s useful to you, and that’s fine. But not to me.”

Hux did have a philosophy, of course, and he’d built his entire life around it. Maintain order at all costs. He supposed Ren considered that more of an edict. 

As they returned to the hotel, the sun began to sink out over the hills terraced with salt ponds. Hux tried to ignore his growing sense of dread, as if nightfall would bring more visions of Brendol. He clasped Ren’s hand when they rode back up to penthouse in the lift, and swallowed the urge to ask Ren if he would mind leaving a few cycles ahead of schedule. The thought of their fully secure, climate-controlled quarters back home on the _Victor_ was almost enough to make Hux misty-eyed with longing. 

“Did you enjoy yourself today?” Ren asked, maybe sensing this. 

“Yes,” Hux said. It was an honest answer. “Do you still want me to fuck you?” He was thinking it might help him regain a sense of control even as night fell. 

“You did promise to, as a wedding gift.”

“Ren. I’ve fucked you since our wedding.”

“Twice.”

“More than that! Well, maybe not, but. Don’t you like it the usual way? How we normally do it?” With you up my arse, Hux didn’t need to say. 

“Yes.” Ren swept Hux wholly into his arms, lifting him off the ground. “I’d spend the rest of my life fucking only your armpit if that was what you preferred, no complaints.”

“Disgusting!” 

Hux couldn’t suppress a grin, though he really did object to that suggestion. He let Ren kiss him as they moved from the lift through the foyer, into the suite. It occurred to Hux that he was being carried across the threshold, and he shivered in Ren’s arms when he considered it was the same threshold where he’d seen Brendol the night before. 

Where he’d imagined he’d seen him, anyway. 

They fucked in the tent bed, and Hux felt rather triumphant afterward, leaning up over Ren and stroking his hair, proud of himself for a job well done. The sunset was glorious behind thin streams of dark clouds, and everything about the rooms behind them and the wild planet laid out before them seemed very far from the terror of the night before. Still, Hux resolved not to go investigating any strange noises alone. Just in case.

Ren insisted on cooking again. Hux lingered in the kitchen during the entire meal preparation, reading a history holo he’d loaded onto his comm before leaving their ship. He offered to help with the meal, but Ren knew he didn’t really want to and waved him off. To Ren there was something fun about this kind of work: it was like tinkering, he said. You made something, in the end. Hux had never told Ren that his mother worked in the kitchens at Brendol’s old Academy. He assumed Ren knew, or at least had sensed enough not to try to push Hux into the joys of cooking. To Hux it would always be part of a raw wound, something taken from him that he could never get back. 

They ate by candlelight, and Hux read a few passages from his holo that he’d found particularly interesting. Ren pretended to find them interesting, too. After cleaning up a bit they went into the master bedroom and had sex on the floor by the fireplace, Hux on his hands and knees, moaning greedily for more while Ren gave him as much as he could handle. 

“Someday I’ll carry you to bed,” Hux said when Ren lifted him into his arms afterward. Hux didn’t really mind the feeling of helplessness when he was in this state, fucked out and sticky and desperate for real sleep. 

“I know you’re joking,” Ren said. “But you did carry me, on Starkiller.” 

“I dragged you, at best.” 

“And again on Snoke’s destroyer.” 

Hux smiled at the memory, though it was a gruesome one. They had made it out, anyway, both times. Ren had gone into a bacta tank, both times. Hux had personally applied a strip of healing tape to his cheek after Starkiller, to keep his face from splitting in two.  

“Do you still think of the scavenger?” Hux asked, though he knew her real name. “Your cousin?” he amended, so that Ren wouldn’t think he was being callous. He really wanted to know.

“Yes.” Ren climbed into bed beside him and scooted over to bring his forehead to Hux’s on the pillow. “I think of all of them from time to time. But it doesn’t trouble me the way it used to.”

“No?”

“No. I have my real family now.” 

Hux sniffed a little laugh, as if Ren was being overly sentimental. As if Hux didn’t feel this, too, every day. He had made light of the marriage proposal since he was the one asking, not wanting to get his hopes up, but it had saved his life when Ren said yes. Signing official documents meant more to Hux than he could convey. As much as his connection to Ren had already endured, the idea that they were on the record as a family was a particular comfort that still buoyed him daily, eight months in. He expected it always would. Maybe it was something to do with being born out of wedlock to parents who loathed each other by the time he arrived. He had always feared he was destined to never have anyone agree in writing to always be on his side. Words and promises were one thing. Official Order record was another, and he cherished this particular bit of it more than any other. 

Hux slept well for some hours and woke to a fully dark room, alone. The fire had gone out. He sat up in bed and tugged the fur blanket over his shoulders, listening for Ren. He had to be just in the fresher, wouldn’t have gone far. There was no sound from that direction, however. Only a distinct noise like the clattering of a spoon against a plate or a bowl. 

“Ren?” Hux called. Already his heart was pounding. Already it was clear that something was wrong. 

He put on his robe and lit one of the lanterns. Ren’s lightsaber was still resting on the table beside the bed. The sounds from the other side of the suite persisted. It had to be the kitchen: Hux heard plates clattering together, something being whisked. Ren must have been hungry. He might even be making some kind of special cake, Hux thought. Some surprise for their last cycle on this planet Hux was already eager to leave. 

Hux moved as if transfixed, not wanting to go but also not wanting to remain alone in the bedroom. It was cruel for Ren to have left him there in the middle of the night, even for the sake of some surprise treat. Hadn’t he noticed how Hux lingered at his side the whole time he’d made dinner, afraid to be alone once the suite had gone dark? Maybe even Ren, for all his power, couldn’t sense the shameful depth of Hux’s fear of being abandoned. Maybe he couldn’t imagine how it was still there, after everything they’d been through and all the promises Ren had made, so strong at times that Hux felt the size and scope of the fear itself would take Ren from him, like a swallowing ocean he might unleash if he opened the wrong door within himself. 

The kitchen door was open and there was candlelight from within. Woodsmoke, too, spilling out into the other rooms. Ren had closed the door whenever he cooked before, so the smoke would vent properly rather than creeping over the other environs. 

“Ren?” Hux said. His voice was weak. He considered he might be dreaming, but the smell of the smoke was just the same as it had been during dinner. He had never had a sense of smell in a dream before. 

He walked forward, holding his robe around himself and disliking the feeling that he should have brought his blaster. To do what? Shoot at Ren in a half-awake panic? Who else could possibly be in there?

When he came to the doorway he felt like he’d known. His mother, her face wet with tears while she slaved over a variety of steaming pots. She was chained to the stove, her ankles bound up in heavy durasteel links. Brendol was nearby, observing. He sneered at Hux when their eyes met. 

“Come and eat, Armitage,” Brendol said. Something was wrong with him: he was greenish, and his left ear was drooping as if it might slide off of him. His eyes were yellowed the way they were just before he went into the bacta tank where he eventually evaporated according to Hux’s plan. “Look at you,” Brendol said, lip curled. “Thin, weak, shaking in your boots. Never more than a scrap, even now.” 

Hux gaped at his mother, who said nothing. She kept her eyes on her work, her chin shaking as she held in a sob. 

“Eat up!” Brendol bellowed. He went to a pot and grabbed a spoon, flinging bits of stew when he lifted it. His ear was sliding down his face, over his fat jowl. It landed with a sickening plop in the stew as Brendol stirred it, smiling. “Hurry, before it gets cold. Stupid boy. You should thank me for keeping you alive.” 

Brendol’s right eye was sliding down his face now, sagging. Hux wanted to scream, to kill him again, to unlock the chains that were making his mother stagger in her steps as she hurried from one pot to another, all of them beginning to boil over. A piece of Brendol’s jaw dropped into one, two fingers from his left hand into another.

“Ungrateful!” Brendol cried, his voice seeming to replace the air. “Murderous shit! Thought you were free of me?” 

Brendol laughed and laughed at that outrageous idea, even as his mouth fell off his face entirely. 

Hux felt something slip away from him. Sanity, he thought, but when he woke on the floor outside the kitchen, in Ren’s arms, he realized he’d fainted. 

“Hey, hey,” Ren was saying, his expression stricken as he hugged Hux against him, one hand cupping Hux’s face. It was still dark; only the lantern that Hux had dropped onto the floor provided light. “You’re okay, it’s all right. Hux--” 

Hux sucked in a panicked breath and twisted in Ren’s arms, gaping at the kitchen. There were no candles lit, no pots boiling over with pieces of Brendol’s disintegrating body cooking with them. No chains, no ghosts.

“I woke up and you were gone,” Ren said when Hux went on staring at the empty kitchen in wide-eyed silence. “You were sleepwalking again. You’re shaking, what were you dreaming about?”

“I have to leave this place,” Hux said, turning to grab Ren’s shoulders. “Ren, we have to go. Something’s wrong here, it’s-- Seeping into me, we have to get out.” 

Ren hugged Hux to him again and stroked his hair. Hux wanted to turn back toward the kitchen, but he knew he’d find nothing there. 

“Did you leave?” Hux asked. He took a handful of Ren’s hair and brought it to his face. It smelled like woodsmoke, the same scent he’d followed here through the dark. “I woke up and you weren’t in the bed.” 

“I was, you were sleepwalking. You only dreamed that I wasn’t there.” 

Hux shook his head. He couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong. Of course he’d only imagined his mother and Brendol, but the feeling that danger lurked just out of sight was real. Something was making him see these horrors. They were waking nightmares, not dreams. There was something in this place that hated him, something that wanted him terrified. 

“If you really hate it here that much, we can leave at first light.” Ren tried not to seem disappointed, but even in his current state Hux could see that he was. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d like it here, but obviously I was wrong.” 

“I want to like it here, Ren, but don’t you see? Something here is hunting me, it’s telling me to leave this place or else!”

“If that were true I would sense it. I’d never bring you near danger.” 

“It’s evading you, it’s intelligent! It has access to my memories, or, or my fears--”

“Okay, let’s. Let’s discuss this in bed, c’mon. It’s cold out here.”

“There’s nothing to discuss, pack your things! I’m leaving at once and I demand you come with me.” 

Ren sighed and stood, pulling Hux up with him. Hux retrieved the lantern, embarrassed by how badly his hand was shaking. His other hand was clasped in Ren’s, and in their matching robes, marching back to bed together, he was sure they looked truly ridiculous. It only mattered in the sense that something eyeless and invasive was watching them, cackling over Hux’s pain while it left Ren just in the dark enough to doubt him. Hux didn’t care about the identity of his tormenter or even what was really going on here. He just knew he had to get away from it at once. 

“You really want to go running home in the middle of the night?” Ren asked when they were back in the master bedroom. Hux was frantically repacking his bag. 

“Yes,” Hux said. “Hurry, come on. Before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“I don’t know! The preservation of my sanity? You’ve seen me through bad dreams before, have I ever been this shaken?”

Ren sighed again, in a way that Hux was beginning to find very annoying. “I have to pack all the food in the kitchen.”

“Do you? Leave it as an offering for the spirits, maybe they’ll let us flee in exchange.”

“Spirits? You don’t believe in that stuff.” 

“I was joking.” This was only half true. “But what do we need that food for? We have food back on the ship, plenty.”

“I had things planned. Special meals.”

Ren was drooping like a spoiled child. Sometimes he still acted like a prince. 

“I’m sorry,” Hux said. “It’s not as if this is what I wanted. I’d been looking forward to this, too.” 

“Had you?” Ren wilted further when Hux gave him a blistering stare. “No, I know. I know, but. Can’t we just wait and see if you feel different in the morning? I won’t leave your side.” 

“Clearly it doesn’t matter if you don’t! This thing tricks me and draws me away from you.” 

“I don’t understand what you think this thing you’re referring to even is.”

“A menace of some kind! Do you really feel nothing in this place? Or are you being obtuse intentionally to thwart me?”

“What am I thwarting? Your plan to wreck our honeymoon?”

“There it is,” Hux said, snarling at him from across the dark room. “Everything that goes wrong is my fault. Because you’re all-knowing, and you’re sure nothing is wrong. I couldn’t possibly sense some danger that’s evaded you.” 

“Let’s not fight.” Ren’s voice was hard in a way that indicated they were already fighting. “If you want to go, fine. It’s spoiled now, anyway.”

Hux had nothing left to say. He felt unfairly wounded, and as if something special had been snatched away from him in a significant way. He was a fool to try to do anything a normal person could enjoy, as usual. He should never leave his command bridge except to huddle in bed with Ren in their quarters, for however long that lasted. 

By the time they rode the lift down to the lobby Hux was shaking again, now with a kind of aggrieved rage. He wasn’t angry with Ren. He was furious with himself, doubting everything he’d felt as the sun began to come up. Perhaps he had overreacted. Perhaps it had only been a vivid dream, sleepwalking, his own unhappy memories reaching up out of the past to claw him away from anything good he tried to have now. But he couldn’t seem to go back on what he’d said. He opened his mouth a few times to try, but the words wouldn’t come out as Ren stomped ahead of him toward the mossy landing pad. 

“Where’s the shuttle?” Ren asked, barking this like it was Hux’s fault that the thing hadn’t arrived. 

“It’s not programmed to pick us up for another cycle,” Hux said, as if Ren didn’t know this. “Have you called it down?”

“Yes. It should be here by now, but--” Ren looked up at the sky, squinting and then frowning. “Something’s wrong.” 

“Fuck.” Hux might have added: yes, I told you so. “What is it? Enemy fire?”

Ren was silent for a long moment that made Hux angrier and angrier as it stretched on. He was consulting the Force, surely, and ignoring his irrelevant husband in the meantime. 

“Both shuttles are still orbiting,” Ren said. “But something’s blocking me from reaching them. Something on this planet.”

“Ha!” Hux couldn’t help it, even as his anxiety skyrocketed. “I knew it.” 

Ren nodded and gave Hux a surprisingly apologetic look. “Something’s off here,” he said. “I don’t think it’s malicious, but it’s trying to keep us on this planet for some purpose. I need to meditate.” 

“Meditate?” Hux watched, open-mouthed, as Ren walked back toward the hotel. “What-- Why? To commune with this beastly place? How is it not malicious if it’s stalking me with evil visions and keeping us here for _some purpose_? What purpose could there be but further torture?”

“Shh!” Ren turned and glowered at Hux. “Just give me a minute. You’re fine, nothing’s coming for you.” 

Hux was too livid to verbally respond. Easy for Ren to say, nothing was coming for _him_. Hux hated nothing more than being told he shouldn’t ask questions about the Force or whatever Ren was accessing through it because he wouldn’t understand. It set him off on his most irrational rages. Now it set him walking away from Ren, toward the salt ponds. 

Ren didn’t seem alarmed by this, which made Hux want to put all the more distance between them. Hux had his blaster on his belt now, anyway. He’d put his uniform on back in the master bedroom as they’d prepared to leave. Ren had scoffed as if Hux was personally insulting him by doing so. Hux had pretended not to notice. 

The salt ponds were lively with fish and other squirming creatures as the sun rose over them. Hux stood at the edge of one, sulking. Ren was seated near the giant stone staircase that led back into the hotel lobby. He was meditating, eyes closed. Trying as best as he could to ignore Hux and his pestering presence. 

Hux sat down at the edge of the pond and tried to do his own kind of meditating. Whatever was stalking him through the rooms of the dead hotel that loomed behind him wanted him to see his father as still alive, still a threat. Or maybe Hux was the one who wanted that. He scoffed and imagined Ren saying so, and turned to see if he’d finished meditating yet. 

Ren was gone. Hux got to his feet quickly and scanned the area around the front staircase, his hand already itching to go for his blaster. There was no sound of retreating footsteps, no trail of blood leading away from the spot where Ren had just been sitting. He’d simply vanished.

“Ren!” Hux called, turning in circles. There was no breeze, everything motionless around him as the sun crept up higher. The usual cloud cover had not yet gathered overhead. Hux could already feel the sun on the back of his neck, his forehead, the part in his hair. 

_Ren_ , Hux tried, calling to him from within. This was what he had done that day on Snoke’s ship, without even knowing it. Maybe he was trying too hard now. He swallowed and closed his eyes, waiting to be told what to do. _Please_ , he thought, opening his eyes to see everything around him still empty, no sign of Ren. _Please, enough. Enough of this, just give me back what’s mine. I only want the one thing, take all the rest but let me keep him, please_. 

It was something like this that had gone through his head on the destroyer that day. Had he meant it? He’d thought so, but they’d both taken so much more once they were delivered into each other’s arms. They’d taken the whole galaxy for themselves, and they sat atop it as if they deserved to remain there. And now something seemed determined to show them they didn’t. He thumbed his ring, a nervous habit that he’d developed almost as soon as Ren put it on his finger. He couldn’t make himself believe even now, especially now, that it was really there, or that it meant anything about what he could have and hold.

“Ren!” he cried, desperate, and then he felt it: a throb at the center of his chest that wasn’t his heartbeat. It was Ren, reaching for him. 

_Yes_ , Hux said back, with all the bones and blood and breath of his body: _I’m here, where are you, just tell me where to go_. 

Hux was not afraid to run back into the cold hotel lobby, blaster drawn. He had done this before, also unafraid, also up against powers he hardly understood except that he knew they wanted him dead. He felt Ren all around him and within him, but also too far away and in terrible danger. 

Hux ran into the lift without thinking. He jammed the button for the hotel’s lowest level, called there by something that had flooded every part of him. Ren was there, in trouble. Hux cursed the lift for taking so long to descend as it sunk through the hotel’s bottom levels, until it was deep underground. 

There was no light in the sub-basement. Hux didn’t need it. He was crazed with purpose, lit up from within. He tripped over trash on the floor but kept moving, didn’t fall. There were horrible smells, so thick in the airless rooms he passed through that he choked on them: rot, decay, something more malicious. He didn’t care, just kept pressing forward toward what drew him. It was Ren’s need of him, Ren’s begging, pained, non-voice, the echo of the real voice Hux loved so much. 

Finally he found what he sought: a heavy durasteel door that led into what used to be an auxiliary control room for a system that heated the man-made ponds. How did Hux know this? He wasn’t sure and didn’t care, just knew that Ren was inside as he shoved at the door, screaming with effort when years of rust made it hard to pull open. 

He stumbled into what looked like a familiar space: there were lights glowing with a shade of emergency red that he recognized, particularly in the sense that they illuminated Ren’s broken body, bloodied and bone-snapped on the floor. 

“No, no,” Hux said, his blaster clattering to the floor as he ran forward. “Ren, what--” 

The heavy door slammed shut behind him and all the lights went out. Hux froze, listening, waiting to hear wicked laughter. He heard nothing and dropped to his knees. He crawled forward, one arm outstretched, expecting to find only cold durasteel where he’d seen Ren’s beaten corpse. Surely it was only another delusion. 

A kicked animal’s broken whine wrenched from him when his hands touched a cold shoulder, dried blood, Ren’s tangled hair. This was him, this was the real Ren, dead and hidden down here in the dark, in the cold-- Something had killed him days ago, the Ren in the suite had been the delusion, and now that monster was coming for Hux, too. 

Hux heard its pounding footsteps advancing on the other side of the door, running to him as if he might still get away. He wailed a hollow, soundless sob and rested his forehead on Ren’s cold shoulder, hugging the broken mess of him that could not be saved a third time. Let the monster consume his body, too. The rest of him was already gone, if Ren was.

“Hux!” 

“No, no,” Hux chanted, though he didn’t know what he was protesting anymore. He was sobbing when Ren lifted him off the ground, a lantern swinging in his hand and his eyes wild with panic. 

“Did it lead you down here?” Ren asked, pulling Hux toward the door. “Are you hurt? Hux--”

“You--” Hux grabbed the lantern and swung around, toward the wall. There was no corpse there, only a pile of moldy old towels that he’d hugged to his cheek as if they were his dead husband. 

“It’s showed you something else, hasn’t it? Hux, I’m so sorry, I figured it out, I know how to get the shuttle to come down, fuck, I’m so sorry--”

Ren was babbling, shaken. Hux steadied himself on Ren’s arms and stared up into his face, not caring that his own cheeks were wet or that he surely looked like he’d completely lost his mind. Ren was here, alive, his big hand warm on Hux’s face.

“I saw--” Hux’s voice barely worked. He turned back again, to make sure the moldy towels were still just that. “Ren, what, why--”

“It’s the Force, it’s me, I did something-- Let’s get out of here, I’ll explain--”

“You were gone, you were--” 

“I came out of meditating and you were bolting into the lobby. Fuck, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let you wander off, I shouldn’t have ever brought you here. I had to wait for the lift to come back up, it took a fucking eternity, Hux, I’m sorry--”

“Ren, what the fuck!” It felt good to have his voice back, somewhat.

“Come on. I’ll tell you, but let’s get out of here, please. It smells like death down here.” 

Hux clung to Ren’s arm as they made their way back to the lift. He went on clinging while the lift ascended. He felt as if they were leaving some hellish afterlife together, narrowly escaping doom with each other’s help yet again. 

“When I got here I was really overcome,” Ren said. He tucked his arm around Hux and they walked together through the silent, watchful lobby. Hux moved slowly, still in shock. “This balcony, right out front? It’s where I stood as a kid and daydreamed about having my own family someday, my real family, like I told you. I got here with all my supplies for our honeymoon and it just froze me. Right here.” 

They passed out of the chill from the lobby and back into the sunlight that touched the hotel’s front balcony. Ren walked Hux over to the stone railing, stopping in a spot that looked out over the salt ponds as they glistened under the new daylight. 

“I was thinking about my parents,” Ren said. He squeezed Hux’s arm, kissed the top of his head. “I got this sinking feeling, like maybe I’d overreached, maybe I couldn’t really have this good thing I’d always dreamed out. So I did this kind invocation to the Force, just a little ritual I invented on the spot to make myself feel better. I asked the will of the Force to allow us both to let go of the past while we stayed here. To just put it all aside.” Ren took a deep breath and let out in a kind of regretful moan. “And for me, it worked. I felt better right away. Something lifted, and this place was wonderful to me, just like I wanted it to be. But it’s-- It’s messed up on your end, because it’s nothing you asked for and I didn’t even mean for it to act on you, not really, not like this. It’s trying to make you confront things in your past. Awful things, fears. What did you see in the basement?”

“You were dead.” Hux looked up at Ren, still gaping with receding disbelief. He touched the stubble on Ren’s jaw and put his fingertips over Ren’s lips to feel the heat of his breath. “It was just like when I found you on Snoke’s ship, beaten to hell and not moving, only it was too late this time.”

“It’s a fear from the past that you haven’t escaped from,” Ren said. “And this place doesn’t want to let you go until you have.” 

“This _place_?”

“Certain places are like divots in space and time. The Force can sometimes collect there in a kind of, uh. Spiritual puddle. Especially places like this that were once crowded with a particular kind of energy, a place of joy that became quiet, different. It reaches out. It wants to connect to people.” 

“Connect?” Hux glared out at the salt ponds, hating them. He wanted nothing more than to leave this place. Their shuttle was still not on the landing pad, he noticed. “More like it wanted to eat me alive, or at least drive me out of mind.” 

“It doesn’t understand you. It just thinks it does-- It was trying to help, as strange as that sounds.” 

“It? A hollowed out old hotel?”

“No-- The Force, this planet. It’s hard to explain.”

“Ren.” Hux closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then a step away from Ren. He was dizzy, having moved so quickly from that nightmare and back to reality. “Get me. The fuck. Out of here. Right now.”

“Yeah, I-- I can, I will. But I’ll need your help.” Ren winced. “I’m sorry.” 

“You’re sorry. For what now?” 

“I’ll just-- Come here. It won’t take long. We just need to clear your head. You’ll have to think of a good memory, something you cherish about the past. Something that brings you peace when you remember it. Then the ritual will be undone and I can reach the shuttle with the Force.”

Hux stammered in wordless disbelief, allowing Ren to pull him away from the hotel by the hand. They walked toward the landing pad, where their gear waited. Hux opened his mouth to lament the loss of his blaster, but Ren unclipped it from his own belt before he could.

“You dropped this down there,” Ren said. “If I give it back, do you promise not to shoot me?”

Hux snatched it from him without answering and tucked it into his belt. Ren had put him through hell-- While trying to give him a present, but even so. Hux felt frail and chewed-up from the hallucination this place had _gifted_ him with in that basement. It had been far too much like that moment on Snoke’s ship when Hux skittered to a stop and held his breath at the sight of Ren’s injuries, afraid that Ren was dead.

“Let’s sit,” Ren said. “It’ll help you meditate.” 

“Meditate! Now I’m meditating?”

“Well, just in a layperson’s sense. Just focus, that’s a better word. All you have to do is focus on any good memory.”

Hux groaned and sat down beside Ren on the sun-warmed duracrete path that lead to the landing pad. It was cracked in places, flowering weeds growing here and there. 

“Close your eyes,” Ren said. “And at least try to clear your mind of your anger toward me.”

“I’m not angry!” Hux snapped his eyes shut, lip raising. “I mean, I am, but-- Ren, I thought you were dead. I was sure I’d been fucking some evil ghost for the past two cycles while your body rotted down there.”

“Hux.” Ren swallowed; Hux still had his eyes closed but could hear it. “I’m so sorry, but. Try not to focus on that trauma just now.” 

“I could kill you myself for this whole bloody circus!”

“I know. I’m sorry. I fucked it all up, just. Wanted to give you something nice. But I made it about me and wrecked everything.” 

Hux peeked at Ren through his eyelashes. He looked depressed. His dream trip had been ruined, and then some. And by Hux’s bad memories, of all things. 

“Oh, come on.” Hux grabbed Ren’s hands and held them in his. “You couldn’t have known this would happen.”

“I should have been more careful. With the Force. With you.”

“Mhmm, well. Lesson learned, then.” Hux squeezed Ren’s hands and took a deep breath. He exhaled through his nose, eyes still closed. “All right. Accessing good memories.” 

“Just one should do. But make it a good one. Your best one, maybe.” 

His best memory. He shuffled through some involving sex and put them aside. All his good memories involved Ren, of course. He rubbed at Ren’s wedding ring with his thumb, still holding both his hands. 

Their ceremony had been austere, militaristic, but still grand in its way. It was recorded for posterity and broadcast to all the Order territories. Watching it was not mandatory, but it was viewed by billions of curious citizens, including those in the Republic who managed to get a copy of the recording for strategic purposes or out of pure morbid interest. The look at Ren’s unmasked face was probably the biggest draw in both cultures.

Hux had adored the seriousness of it. Neither of them had smiled, but Ren had leaned over to kiss him on the mouth after they had both slipped rings onto each other’s fingers and swore that they would stand together in glory for as long as they lived. Hux had been surprised by the kiss, which hadn’t been in their script. He’d loved it: that Ren was willing to show not only his bare face but this even more fragile part of himself to the entire galaxy. After the kiss, they took turns kneeling for each other and placed crowns of simple, sturdy durasteel upon each other’s heads. Their crowns, like their rings, were designed to represent practical strength. Their entire marriage was meant to represent that, and it did. But also there was that small, irrepressible kiss that represented something softer and more private. And the whole galaxy had seen Ren give it to Hux. 

Hux opened his eyes when he heard the shuttle touching down on the landing pad behind them. Ren was smiling, holding Hux’s hands and rubbing his thumbs over Hux’s knuckles. 

“I did like the tent bed,” Hux said, and Ren leaned over to kiss him on the mouth. 

Aboard the shuttle, Hux cast a last look down at the Isle Royale as they blasted away from it. Ren stood behind him and rested his chin on Hux’s shoulder. Everything in his energy and posture was apologetic, deferential, and Hux expected it would continue to be for at least a few cycles. That would be a sort of honeymoon itself, he thought. 

“We still have a full cycle before we have to return to duty,” Hux said, glad to turn away from the sight of the planet below.

“Did you want to go somewhere else?” Ren asked, eyebrows lifting. “A spacestation, maybe?” 

“Fuck no, Ren! I want my bed, and my rooms, and our life. That’s my only concept of paradise, I’m afraid. Forgive my lack of imagination. You’ve seen what imagination does to me.” 

Ren smiled and hugged Hux to his chest. The shuttle broke atmo, jumped into hyperspace, and brought them home while they stayed like that, holding each other in a kind of wobbly, rhythmless dance, both of them unwilling to let go. 

 

 

**


End file.
